Fact or fiction

At a time when content generated by artificial intelligence (AI) is showing up constantly in feeds, Mount Royal's University's Library acts as a great resource for students looking to navigate the misinformation environment.

Earlier in the fall semester, the Library hosted a series of events targeted at raising awareness of the importance of being digitally literate when it comes to AI. Through conversations with MRU's Wellness Services' team, the Library saw an opportunity to engage with students, especially on the heels of a survey that highlighted the need for these conversations.

Joel Blechinger, librarian and assistant professor, says that students are on the "front lines" of many of these issues due to the fact that they are "heavier users of social-media platforms and are subject to evolving social norms and changing platform policies around labelling AI-generated content."

Belchinger explains that for several years TikTok has been among the worst platforms for spreading misinformation.

He points to an example of a recent CBC Marketplace story, where journalists analyzed 200 cancer and autism videos on TikTok and found about 80 per cent of the "remedies" provided were not based on medical science. He adds that misinformation's spread on TikTok has been "supercharged" by AI (AI-deepfaked videos, AI-generated voiceover narration, etc.).

"Misinformation, disinformation and malinformation issues can impact students' learning," Belchinger says. "Students are still developing information evaluation skills in early undergrad years."

As part of Digital Harm Reduction Week, the Library, along with librarians and professors, set up interactive demonstrations on Main Street to engage students to test their knowledge on AI and misinformation.

Belchinger says many of them were familiar with the idea of synthetic/AI-generated content existing as part of their social media feeds already.

"In many cases, the activities didn't take a lot of explanation due to students' familiarity with 'AI or not' questions."

However, he notes that students were surprised at how susceptible they were to misinformation, specifically related to the AI-generated video examples that were part of the "AI or not" activity.

"The capabilities of video-generation technologies have been improving so rapidly that - even as part of preparing for our activity - I found that a lot of the earlier heuristics for spotting fakes, such as counting the number of digits on a person's hand, are already out of date."

Another observation Belchinger made while interacting with students was the possibility of a piece of content being AI-generated and how it causes one to doubt real content and to begin to conspiratorially look for irregularities in genuine content as well.

"Of course, having a healthy skepticism towards all content is good, especially now, but we have also seen how people alleging that content is AI-generated is now also its own form of smearing or discrediting someone or something."

One of the specific activities on Main Street looked at real versus fake headlines about Taylor Swift.

"Students were often drawing on their broader knowledge of who she is and what she is interested in, or not, to come to the correct conclusion," says librarian Cari Merkley.

"It really emphasized how much easier it is to fall for the fakes when they relate to something you don't know that much about."

The Library has numerous resources dedicated to information evaluation within its new Academic Research Skills guide, which launched this fall.

Assistant professor of journalism, Dr. Brooks Decillia, PhD, has also developed a website on misinformation.

Librarian Madeleine Vanderwerff also suggests using websites such as RAND, which provides tools to fight disinformation online.

When in doubt, it's always wise to consult with a librarian at the Library's Service Desk or by making an appointment online. Librarians often join both program-specific and general education classes to offer insight about information literacy.

Editor's note: Since the time of writing, Blechinger has transitioned to a new role at the University of Calgary. This story reflects their work during their time at MRU.